SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:54 P.M. ET:

MEDIA ECSTASY – They're going nuts at the networks.  Why?  Because they see signs that Hillary is coming alive.  She made a pretty good commercial!  She came up with a "program" for gun control, which must have taken her five minutes.  She was marginally funny on Saturday Night Live.  These are the things the journalists believe will make a president.  We'll be monitoring the polls to see if the Queen actually is coming back to life.  She'll have to counter the growing perception among voters that she's untrustworthy and dishonest.  But who cares about the little things?

OBAMA TO TRAVEL – The field marshal will be in Oregon on Friday to comfort families who suffered losses in last week's Oregon school shooting.  The hypocrisy flows.  It turns out he was already schedule to be in the region to go to a fundraiser for Senator Patty Murray of Washington, and to do some politicking in California.  I guess it's okay to squeeze in some mourning families and make some agenda points.  We have yet to hear a single new or thoughtful proposal from the president on gun violence.  He seems to feel that the American people have let him down and not gone along with his brilliance on this.  We are told that he plans "executive actions" on guns.  I always thought that if you want to change gun laws, you needed Congress.  I'm so old-fashioned.

I'M SHOCKED, SHOCKED – From The Wall Street Journal, via Fox: Federal law-enforcement authorities are investigating an alleged bribery scheme involving payments to officials at the United Nations to gain support for real-estate development in Macau, people familiar with the matter said.  The arrests last month of a Macau real-estate mogul and his assistant are connected to the alleged scheme, said those familiar with the matter. Additional charges are expected to be announced as early as Tuesday against a number of other people, including current or former U.N. officials.  The investigation, led by the office of Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, centers on alleged bribery by Chinese businesspeople, they said. Some of the alleged bribes flowed to U.N. officials from the Caribbean, they said. How the alleged scheme worked wasn’t immediately clear.  Obviously, this investigation is part of a great right-wing conspiracy to discredit the wonderful peacemakers at the UN.  Why, look around the world.  Don't you see peace breaking out all over?

October 5, 2015